MURRAY'S PREMIER LEAGUE WARNING

29 April 2017

Kieran Cleeves

The forward commented on the difficulty of the Premier League.

Brighton & Hove Albion striker Glenn Murray believes his team-mates must prepare themselves for a step up in quality next season, and stressed the importance of understanding the Premier League’s unforgiving nature.

Albion’s top goalscorer has already played in England’s top flight during spells at Crystal Palace and AFC Bournemouth, and he explained the fine margins Albion should expect when playing in the top division next season.

He said, “The game is very different in the Premier League; it’s very slow and then it spurts into life and you think ‘what’s just happened?’. It’s one of those moments where you think you’ll have to watch that on Match of the Day later.

“You’re obviously up against much, much better players, both skill-wise and physical. I think we can only give a certain number of chances away, because teams are obviously more clinical in the Premier League.

“You can give three or four away in the Championship and sometimes get away with it, depending on who you’re playing. But if you give away three or four away in the Premier League, you’re two or three nil down.

“We’ve got to realise that we’re coming up against some of the best players in the world and they can change a game within the blink of an eye.”

After clinching promotion, the Seagulls are within touching distance of securing the Sky Bet Championship title against Bristol City today, and Murray revealed the moments he believes were crucial throughout the season.

“Key games were Birmingham away around Christmas, they were promotion candidates at the time and right up there, so to get that last-minute goal gave us a lot of belief.

“The other game for me was Sheffield Wednesday at home. I got sent off and gave a penalty away, and it could have all gone very differently to how it did. Luckily Stocko [David Stockdale] produced and so did Anthony [Knockaert].

“In April we really produced as a team, when our backs were against the wall and we were under a lot of pressure from Huddersfield and the others around us.

“We won three in a week and that was a really big week for us. We could feel them breathing down the back of our neck. Every time we came off the field, they’d won 1-0 or scored late on.

“We’d think ‘jeez, are they going to give up or what?!’ We could feel the pressure, but that week in April was huge for us and that set us on our way.”

Murray was part of Albion’s League One title-winning side that finished above Southampton in 2011, and the striker drew similarities between Gus Poyet’s successful team and Chris Hughton’s current crop.

“We had a good defence back then, as we’ve also had this year, and I think all success is built on that.

"We’ve got forward players that can create and score goals, and I think we had that in the League One team as well.

“We had a good manager in Gus [Poyet]. We pipped a big club to the title that season [Southampton] and hopefully we can do it this year as well.”